Include Body Massage Therapy in Your Regular Healthy Habits in Arboretum and Charlotte NC

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To live long, healthy and happy lives, we need to build good lifestyle habits. Jen Bondeson lists some of them in her article in the Summer 2009 online issue of Massage Envy Magazine. The magazine adds body massage therapy as an important habit to put on your list. People in Arboretum and Charlotte NC can easily do this.

Bondeson identifies five tasks that she believes you should include in your daily habits in order to achieve and mainatain your best health status for the long term.

Proper Diet

Bondeson advises eating the right kinds of food at the right time. This means not skipping breakfast and eating it at the start of your day. She considers this the most important meal of all since it provides you with instant energy while revving up your metabolism and enabling you to burn more calories.

All other meals should be properly monitored, as well, Bondeson says. She advises using the natural color of food as your guide. This is because food of various colors represents different vitamins and nutrients. Meals should, therefore, be colorful, with more colors meaning a wider mix of nutrients and vitamins.

Bondeson also cites the recommendation of the American Dietetic Association to choose more nutritious sweet potatoes over white potatoes and deep-green romaine lettuce over iceberg lettuce.

Proper Exercise

Bondeson refers to the findings of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that 70 percent of adults in the United States do not get active enough to reap health benefits. She quotes the American Heart Association spokesman, Richard A. Stein, M.D., saying, “Exercise is one of the best things you can do to live longer and better.” Stein explains that exercising vigorously for 30 to 40 minutes three to five days a week can increase and extend energy throughout one’s day, decrease weight, improve quality of sleep, lower the risk of heart attacks and depression, and raise self-esteem.

No Smoking

Once again, Bondeson refers to the findings of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that 440,000 premature deaths each year are caused by smoking. She also quotes Dr. Stein as saying, “The benefits of stopping smoking are extraordinary. Simply put, you’ll add years to your life.”

More Laughter

Laughter is not only the best medicine but is also the best preventive medicine, it seems. Bondeson recommends integrating more laughter into each day because it increases the flow of blood to the heart and the amount of oxugen in the blood while lowering blood pressure. She cites a study of cardiologists from the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore saying that “a strong sense of humor may even help protect you against a heart attack.”

Enough Sleep

Bondeson says the National Institutes of Health requirement for adults is an average of eight hours of sleep every night. She points out that this is also very critical to your health and recommends that you sleep early in order to have adequate rest.

Regular Massage

Massage Envy Magazine adds regular massage to the list because it not only relieves stress but also lowers blood pressure, increases circulation and reduces pain from a variety of conditions. If you are able to have daily massage sessions, you would be very fortunate indeed. A weekly or monthly schedule would also be very beneficial if this is more practical for you.

Therapeutic massage comes in various styles. You can avail of Swedish massage therapy, deep tissue massage therapy, sports massage therapy or pregnancy massage therapy from reputable body massage clinics. You may also purchase body massage gift cards from these massage clinics in Arboretum and Charlotte NC. Make it a regular part of your healthy lifestyle.